”It´s probably on these letters we are supposed to insert the most common of symbols.”
They examined the box for a few minutes of silence. Ludwig asked.
”Where does it come from?”
”No one knows. But the first time it appears in history is in a picture that depicts Thoth from the 1200s BCE. The General Inquisitor Bellarmine had copied it in his notebook.”
August brought forth the notebook. Flipped to an up-beat18 with a folded picture. Cautiously he folded it out.
”You may be familiar with the legend of what happened to Pharaoh Ramses II's army when they came to the city of Kadesh in Syria.”
”I've heard of it yes. They ran into some kind of obstacle and Ramses falsely proclaimed it as a victory even though it was rather that they suffered a major defeat. This was before cell phone cameras and YouTube.”
”Exactly. Thoth was living at the time, near Kadesh in Syria. No one knows how long he lived, only that he had become biblically old because of the power he had. When Ramses II and his army of 5000-6000 men rode toward the city they met Thoth on a field outside of Kadesh. Here we can see the Four-Leaf Clover for the first time.”
August pointed to the picture. It showed a huge, flat sandy field. At one end was Ramses II and in front of him, like a giant shield, stood his army.
”Look closely at the picture, Ludwig. At a first glance they look to be bravely rushing against Thoth, but if you look closely you can see how the fear is entrenched in their faces.”
They brought the image closer. Checked out the soldiers. According to Ludwig, it looked as if the picture let out a muffled cry. He had never seen anything like it.
The images in the Theatrum Diabolus are incredible and as I understand it Bellarmine has painted them all himself. He rarely opened the notebook for others. The contrast between the pictures and the man Bellarmine is huge, who was known to be a hard man. He draws with soft lines and had an amazing eye, maybe not in the class of Caravaggio, but near.
It's like he put down all his care in the images and had no sympathy left for the world.
That's what Ludwig and August saw on this day.
Ludwig was fascinated. The men in the front line twisted in horror and the army were in the process of turning around as if they had encountered an army ten times their own size.
At the other end of the sand field stood Thoth alone.
He had his mask of the Ibis bird on him and actually looked like a god-like creature.
He had a belt where the Four-Leaf Clover was stuck as a buckle.
He had a knee and a hand in the sand. The other hand was extended towards the army. In his hand shone a blinding light as a supernova that stretched to Ramses II's army.
August circled some of the men in the army with his finger. If you looked really close you could see that their faces writhed. The horses reared.
”Even if this image is quite known the Four-Leaf Clover is traditionally believed to have its origin in the temple at Edfu in Egypt, just south of the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. A temple dedicated to the god Horus, who is the son of the Egyptian Creation family with Isis and Osiris as parents.”
”Okay, I had no idea. I cannot say I know a lot about the Egyptian mythology.”
Without saying anything August went out of the room. He brought his computer. He opened the browser and went through various photo folders where pictures of trips across the world were stored. He opened up a folder of photos from a trip they had made to Egypt. A cruise on the Nile.
August flipped past pictures of the guides and the dinners. He showed temples along the Nile with images of the gods Osiris, Isis, who gave birth to the savior Horus and pictures of Thoth where he was depicted as a God with his Ibis-mask.
He stopped at the picture of a temple with high pylons. Carved in stone were figures of enormous dimensions.
”This is important, Ludwig. Here is the Horus temple in Edfu. According to the myth, Thoth hid the Four-Leaf Clover here long ago. The box has always contained the path to Thoth´s book and subsequently also the path to the Theatre where Thoth´s book now is said to be. Although the path has been described in other ways, on the obelisks of Rome and in ancient burial chambers, the right path has always been in the Four-Leaf Clover.”
Ludwig came to think of Victoria's notes and what she wrote about the obelisks Lateranense, Matteiano, Flaminio and the diary note about Illustro and Caravaggio, but his thinking was broken by August.
August pointed to clovers on the Egyptian box.
”According to legend, the path should be described on linen paper in these four clovers.”
”Victoria wrote about the five signs in the Four-Leaf Clover. Capita et bos in her notes. Should signs be here somewhere?”
”That's the question. I don´t really know what she meant. They are probably somewhere in it.”
”Isn´t possible that the signs are on the obelisks?”
”Well, it's highly possible. At least the sign for a head is very common, so I would think so. But I don´t see what good it does for us if we find the signs on the obelisks, I mean, they're certainly there but I find it hard to see what they'll tell us. I think the easiest way is that we try to get into these clovers.”
”Why don´t we open it, then?”, said Ludwig.
”It's not quite that simple. In all probability you have to push the right word or code on these alphabet keys.”
”There´s no need for that. Just rip it open.”
”You obviously don´t know what was about to happen when you were turning the caduceus? I've read lengths about these boxes. There are certainly a lot of needles and other mischief in there, which are designed to tear apart the messages if you try to break into it. You have to solve the codes to access the clovers.”
Ludwig twisted and turned on the box for a few minutes in an effort to find possible inputs. He found none. The Four-Leaf Clover was a compact masterpiece.
”It's probably easiest if we try to solve the first message”, said August.
August picked up the paper that they had written from page 530 in Corpus Thoth Fraternitatis.
Head to Sena Julia where the Path of the Five Trials begins inside the gate of the Barbarian's house. Listen to the conversation between the law-giver and the receiver. Then insert the most common symbols in the Four-Leaf Clover. Let this be your Egyptian Virgil.
August explained to Ludwig. ”It is this code we need to solve in order to get into the Four-Leaf Clover´s first chamber.”
Ludwig looked at the box and the clovers. He thought that it could not be that hard. The cipher in the Corpus had proven to be a joke, at least for Ludwig. He asked.
”Have you any idea what it is then? Then insert the most common symbols in the Four-Leaf Clover.”
”No, I have not. It's like I said a lot of years since I was in the Siena Cathedral. How hard I try, I can´t remember anything more than a few mosaics.”
Ludwig continued to investigate the box. He wondered if a tiny screwdriver might be possible to coax the foundation. But in his eyes, it seemed impossible.
The Bear and the Rat who stole it from the coffin in Riegersburg had cut themselves severely when they tried to cut loose the sapphires and the malachite-stones and even when they tried to open it. It was impossible, they would have to crush it to get it open and that would destroy its contents.
The juice mixers still shone against Staatsoper outside but August and Ludwig was no longer concerned for them. They thought that it probably would have been an accident. They sat in silence for a long time in front of the Four-Leaf Clover. The laptop went down to sleep. The fan stopped buzzing. Finally a tired August said.
”Can you think of anything, Ludwig?”
Ludwig shook his head.
August put the Four-Leaf Clover in a bag.
”We have no choice. We must go to Siena. It's probably just as well. Sooner or later we must go to Italy.”
Ludwig looked at August.
 
; ”How long will I have to -”
August interrupted.
”As long as it is required, Ludwig.”
Ludwig sighed.
”August, are you really sure about this. Isn´t it better to give up on this, I mean the Theatre, how many have tried and failed? There's not a chance that we will get there how much we try and unlike the rest who tried the police will sooner or later start chasing us.”
August sat next to Ludwig.
”I know what you're trying to do. You might win over me in chess, you might even be smarter than I am but I can read you like a book, do you understand?
One thing you should learn. Do not try to convince me of anything, feel free to try different angles on a problem but do not try to make me change my mind. It will not happen. If I doubt your wholehearted help a single second I throw you to the police as soon as I would throw away bad eggs.”
August stood up. Looked down on Ludwig.
”Do we understand each other, Ludwig?”
Ludwig felt there was no point to fight. He looked out the window. Tried to locate the police. Saw only the light from the juice mixers. He said resignedly.
”Sure we are.”
”Good. Pack your stuff.”
They took with them their belongings, checked out and stepped into a Mercedes outside the lobby. August announced to the driver that he would drive them to Südbahnhof.
As they drove away on Philharmonikerstrasse they saw the police cars parked on the other side of Hotel Sacher, at the hotel's café. They had cordoned off an area around Krugerstrasse.
At Südbahnhof August withdrew as much money as he could from the ATM. He bought tickets for the night train to Florence, and from there they would take a taxi the last bit to Siena.
*
Annoyed, Alexander Wagner looked at the tired Julian when he threw a cigarette on the ground and pressed his shoe against the butt.
Wagner then gave the order to go into the apartment at Krugerstrasse. Some uniforms had ringed the bell without results. They rammed the door with a battering ram. The thin wooden door folded itself and splinters flew in the air.
They stormed the apartment with a roar. After a few minutes Wagner heard on his radio that no one was in the apartment. He went up.
It was a mess in the apartment. Clothes were thrown over chairs. Closet doors were open. Dirty dishes stood on the kitchen table next to a bottle of wood glue. Pulp magazines and mail lay in a heap in the hall. It was as if no one had lived there for a long time.
”Damn it!”, cried Wagner.
He grabbed Julian and roared.
”Lighten the bastard with a nationwide alert. Notify Nora Smith in Haag.”
[ Notes October 14 ]
The Cathedral
The last three days I have been in Siena. The cathedral was closed yesterday due to renovation, but reopened today. I've been there a total of four times, talking to guards, guides and cashiers. I showed a picture of August to the woman in the gift shop two days ago, but she didn´t recognize him, but the woman standing there today did. What she told me is consistent with the Manuscript. She said that she had never been so scared. Her testimony confirms Coetzee´s story and if it´s indeed true, I understand her.
Kunsthistorisches Museum
When I was in Vienna, I had the opportunity to talk with the janitor at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, who also confirmed the Manuscript´s version, he seemed to hold Victoria Iacobi up to a near saintly status. He also told me that he was glad that justice now had been done.
After a little help from an acquaintance, Mr. Wolfgang Klose, who works as a doctor at Vienna's major hospital, Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien, I got hold of the autopsy technician Mr. Steiner at St Joseph Krankenhaus but he was reticent, hesitant to talk to a journalist. But he could at least tell me about his collaboration with Alexander Wagner, which in large part anyway corroborates with the Manuscript. It was a strange process that Coetzee describes, with the morgue and everything, but it´s true none the less.
Loretta C again declined an interview when I called and when I was there a week ago.
The Inscription
The inscription on the floor mosaic in the Siena Cathedral is hard to miss. If you furthermore put it in perspective, in the light of the Manuscript, it becomes all the more amazing. But I have, just like Ludwig, great difficulty knowing what to think or believe about it all. Pagan images in Christianity´s castle, so to speak. I´ve been there before but never thought of what Coetzee describes. Fascinating with these floor mosaics.
Thoth Fraternitatis, Bellarmine and Theatrum Diabolus
Giorgio finally got in touch yesterday. He confirmed that the Great Doctor indeed kept a record of his search for Thoth´s Brotherhood. The notebook was entitled Theatrum Diabolus. Giorgio also found a letter, which is consistent with the symbol, the caduceus, that Bellarmine is said to have acquired at the turn of 1600, which once again confirms the activities of Thoth Fraternitatis and their influence over the General Inquisitor´s actions.
According to Giorgio it´s also said that Medici´s man in Rome at the time, the great cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, could have been involved in the Brotherhood, which means that it branched all the way up to the highest part of the Vatican. Giorgio tells me that in Palazzo Avogadro, which Del Monte owned, in his private studio the cardinal had a massive portrait of Thoth.
The Capitoline Hill
Today I received additional material from my contact at the Rome police. He sent a film, he only got the light from his iPhone running so it appears quite a bit dim. However, I now see clearly the caduceus on the wall and next to it is a constellation that shines over what I think is supposed to be Earth. I don´t know what it means yet but I wonder if it has anything to do with what August told Ludwig about the Three Kings and the birth of Jesus.
Notes
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